What role does the branch predictor play in CPU timing attacks, and how can attackers manipulate it to leak sensitive information?
Wednesday, 12 June 2024
by EITCA Academy
The branch predictor is a critical component of modern CPU architectures designed to enhance performance by speculating the direction of branch instructions (e.g., if-else statements) before they are resolved. This speculation allows the CPU to prefetch and execute instructions along the predicted path, thereby reducing the perceived latency and improving overall throughput. However, this performance

